


Ordinary People

by scriba_vindex



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Brief bits of pseudo-science, But seriously what animal is Mitch?, I know you're skeptical but hear me out, M/M, Read and you'll find out!, Science mishap, Shapeshifting, Shenanigans around Toronto, getting together?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-27 00:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13869663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scriba_vindex/pseuds/scriba_vindex
Summary: A romp in a mysterious Toronto science facility to humour the Leafs' Sports Science department results in the players accidentally acquiring an unusual and highly entertaining ability.Ever wondered what the Leafs' spirit animals would be? Well I did, so here we are.





	1. Mitch

So, Mitch and the rest of the Leafs ensemble were hanging out in a mad science lab. 

Okay- technically it was just some National Bioinformatics and Biochemistry facility in downtown Toronto, but it might as well have been a mad science lab. There were dudes walking around in hazmat suits, emergency buttons for chemical spills and shit in every room, and tons of locked doors with cool labels like _Transgenics, Toxicology,_ and _Neuroscience._

Mitch thought it was a freaking cool place to hang out. Of course, he and his teammates hadn’t just wandered inside; they were supposed to be undergoing some kind of performance test on a skating treadmill to humour their Sports Science department. 

However, said test had yet to get underway. The twenty Leafs had been ushered into a small, whitewashed room and left alone after being told to await further instructions. 

That had been nearly half an hour ago. It had been fun for like five minutes; now, being crammed into a tiny-ass room with nineteen hockey players (even his beloved teammates) was proving tiresome. 

Especially when there was obviously so much cool shit to discover just beyond the surrounding walls. 

He could already imagine the chirps that would follow, should his teammates discover just how badly he wanted to go explore. 

_Mitch, the secret fucking science genius._

_It’s not Bill Nye, Mitchy. You wouldn’t like it._

_Do you even know what the Periodic Table is?_ (He did, thank you very much)

Mitch hardly cared; he was much more hung up on the fact that there was probably all sorts of cool top secret research going on in the enormous underground labs they’d passed on the way in…

Perhaps the universe was privy to Mitch’s jeopardous thoughts, since before he could even begin to hatch a scheme the lights in the miniscule room flickered surreptitiously. 

Immediately, the team’s offhanded chattering fell silent. At Mitch’s side, Auston glanced up from his phone, casting his bronze eyes skyward. 

Commotion became audible outside the waiting room, and some sort of shrill alarm began to sound. It screeched out a repeating tandem of buzzes that made Mitch’s skull vibrate. 

Willy and Kappy’s faces immediately morphed into matching disgusted expressions, causing Leo to smirk whole-heartedly as he attempted to withdraw his phone and snap a photo while simultaneously covering his own ears. JVR and Bozie looked ready to casually murder someone. Gards looked like he could hear colours. Zaits was (perhaps sarcastically, perhaps not) banging his head against a wall. Naz had managed to slam his knee into the room’s coffee table amidst the lights’ flickering and was now swearing loudly. Auston shot Mitch a look that reached a new pinnacle of _dead inside_ , even for him.

Things were not good. They were stuck in a tiny room enduring noise punishment worse than post-loss screaming from Babs. 

Mercifully, Mo (in his usual mature, captainly fashion) decided to bite the bullet and investigate what the hell was going on outside their waiting room. He exited swiftly, the entire team watching, transfixed, as the door shut behind him. 

Rielly was only gone a moment before reopening the door ardently. 

“Shit…guys, there’s no one out here. And the alarm’s some kind of warning. _Code Yellow_ , or whatever the hell that means!” He shouted over the blaring alarm. 

“So what do we fucking do?” Naz screamed back in response, still fuming over his smarting knee. 

“Signs out here say evacuate to a _Level III_ room!”

Bozak, muttering “if only we knew what the hell that means,” marched over, propping open the door to get a look at whatever safety sign Mo was trying to decipher. 

“ _Level III_ is marked with a…purple octagon maybe? I think that’s what that is.” He offered loudly, gesturing to the poster and fighting to make himself heard over the cacophony. “Or it could be the orange triangle…”

Mo appeared visibly flustered. “Well, shit.” He declared vehemently, casting his gaze through the doorway at his teammates’ inquisitive faces. 

Ruefully, Rielly shot one more glance down the hallway, as though hoping some scientist might magically observe their presence and come to the rescue.

“Alright guys, everyone out. Guess we’d better find a room marked with a purple octagon or an orange triangle.” He called out, somewhat dejectedly. 

Mitch tried to stifle his excitement at the chance to traverse more of the science facility and appeared properly concerned like the rest of his teammates. 

It didn’t stop him from being the first out the door and the swiftest to dart down the hallway to check the nearest rooms. They were all labeled with green squares. And there was nothing but boring meeting space inside.

Quick investigations down the nearest branching hallways yielded similar results. 

The Leafs ensemble made their way deeper into the building, herded by the captains. The tension among the group was rising palpably with each failed attempt to find the apparent “safe room”. 

“Did that poster even say what _Code Yellow_ is?” Mitch heard Carrick inquire, to which Bozak replied rather hollowly “No.”

Personally, Marns’ interest in the increasingly science-y rooms they were checking outshone his worries about the strange-ass lockdown. They’d found a room full of huge microscopes and a space crammed with enough machinery to stuff their ACC change room twice. They’d even passed a door labeled _Nuclear Magnetic Resonance_ , which Mitch thought sounded like shit that Tony Stark would use. 

However, the alarm continued to blare, and the hallways remained eerily empty. The fear on his friends’ faces was becoming pronounced, Mitch observed. 

Thus, he experienced a tremendous flood of relief as, after darting a few steps ahead of the group, he rounded a corner and found himself face to face with a door baring a large orange symbol.

“Dudes, I found it!” He announced triumphantly, causing his teammates to scamper up behind him. “It says _Zone III_ …is that close enough?”

Mo looked supremely doubtful. “That’s not even an octagon Mitch…”

“It’s a fucking _hexagon_.” Zach contributed unhelpfully. 

“Well it’s the closest we’re going to freaking get, apparently.” Bozie declared sharply, trying the door. “Let’s just get the hell inside.”

The door opened with a click, and in the face of Bozak’s authoritative tone, the rest of the Leafs followed him inside. 

Oddly enough, Mitch observed that there was a second door inside (which, luckily, was also unlocked). Wordlessly, the group entered a darkened lab. 

As soon as the pair of heavy doors behind them had shut, the alarm outside was greatly deadened, to Mitch and his teammates’ immense relief. It was still real dark, though. 

Auston’s calm, unmoving presence at Mitch’s side was all that was keeping him relaxed, he realized. 

“Hit the lights, someone?” Rielly called from somewhere on the other side of the lab. 

“There’s a bunch of switches over here…” Brownie muttered uncertainly from another corner. 

Mitch heard JVR sigh obnoxiously. “Just _flip_ them, Connor. We can’t see shit.”

With a pensive whirr, the lights flickered on, bringing with them a bizarre hiss. 

At first, Mitch thought he was imagining the haze over the lights. 

Then he realized that the wisps around the bulbs were no figment of his overstressed brain’s imagination. 

The lab was filling with gas.

* * *

Mitch vaguely remembered hearing someone yell to _“not fucking breathe,”_

He thought he recalled Matts grasping frantically for his hand as the lab became obscured with pale white vapour. 

He knew he’d held his breath until spots had danced before his eyes.

When he’d succumbed to his bodily instinct to inspire air, he’d expected some gnarly, painful death. 

Instead, there’d been this weird lightness. Like someone had pumped helium slowly into his skull. It was both invigorating and suffocating.

Until Connor apparently found the off switch.

Once flicked, the cloud of gas dissipated remarkably rapidly, the whole episode having lasted less than a minute. The twenty Leafs were left staring at each other in awe.

Evidently, they weren’t dead. Yet. 

It was a long time before anyone had the nerve to speak. Mitch himself felt uncharacteristically speechless. 

Oddly, it was Freddie, the quietest of them all, who broke the silence. 

“I think maybe we should have kept looking for the octagon.”

* * *

They were found by a flustered-looking woman in a lab coat. 

“Are you that hockey team?” She inquired breathlessly, hair tousled and cheeks reddened as she flung open the door to the lab. 

“Yes.” A dozen voices replied monotonously. 

Mitch could sense the unasked question of _what the hell did we just inhale and are we going to die?_

Not one of the players got up the courage to ask the agitated scientist, however, for fear of what kind of shit they might find themselves in if they did.

Hell, they obviously weren’t even supposed to be in this room, let alone flipping random switches. 

The scientist regarded them as one might regard a puppy trying to sneak out a door and escape. “Thank god.” She muttered flatly. “Why _in the hell-_ “ she started, before regaining composure and eyeing the Leafs levelly. “Just come with me.”

The players followed her obediently, filing out of the lab and heading back in the direction of the waiting room from hell. Apparently, they were too shell-shocked from the whole gas experience to inquire about the mysterious _Code Yellow_. 

The scientist reinstalled them in the tiny whitewashed space, where they were briefly left alone once more until a bespectacled man in a tracksuit appeared with a clipboard to collect them. 

“Right, sorry about that, gentleman.” The man bellowed, eyes fixed to his list. “Just a slight systems and security malfunction…things locking and unlocking where they shouldn’t.” he murmured evenly. “But no worries; everything’s fixed now, if you’ll follow me we can begin the test.”

Bewilderedly, Mitch and his teammates trailed after the man and completed the requisite tests; breathing into tubes, running and skating on treadmills, answering lifestyle questions, the works. 

Everyone appeared to be functioning normally, despite the mysterious gas.

The man running the tests didn’t comment on how subdued the group was, so perhaps he just thought they were all being professional. Mitch sensed a great unease, as though perhaps his teammates were worrying about dropping dead the instant they left the science facility. 

Luckily for the Toronto Maple Leafs Association, they did not. In fact, it was a full day before any sort of change became apparent.

* * *

The whole gas incident sort of unintentionally became taboo among the Leafs players. They seemed to have subconsciously agreed to act like it had never happened, for better or for worse. 

Auston and Mitch included. It didn’t pass between their lips once as they chilled in Auston’s apartment the following evening. Through half a dozen Fortnite games and a healthy dose of Chinese food they stuck to the usual petty conversations about memes, music, and video games. 

Until Mitch accidentally dumped an entire container of that weird syrupy red sauce down his chest. 

_“Fuck!”_ he exclaimed as the red shit dripped down his shirt at a mockingly slow pace. 

Auston tried to stifle his laughter but utterly failed, nearly causing Mitch to fling the sticky red container in his direction. 

“I think you need a shower there, Mitchy.” Matts chortled, smiling as Mitch groaned at him. 

“I never would have spilled that shit if you’d taken out that guy before he could snipe me.” Marns huffed, referring to their Fortnite game. Matts continued to smirk at him, so he shrugged theatrically and stomped in the direction of Auston’s bathroom. “Do me a favour and go find your smallest clothes. And excuse me while I go stain your shower red.”

“Better than the couch.” Matts called after him with a smile, just as Mitch shut the door with a click. 

Marns stripped out of his nasty, sticky clothes and stepped into Auston’s shower, trying not to be perturbed as he adjusted the shower head a solid six inches lower than its original position. 

_Fucking Auston_. He thought, smiling a little despite his irritation. 

He gratefully allowed the steaming water to wash over him, scrubbing the stickiness from his chest with Matts’ mint body wash. 

When the last of the suds had slid down the drain, he turned off the water and reached for his towel- 

-And that was when he felt it.

A hollow numbness in his brain that wasn’t dissimilar from what he’d felt the previous day in the lab. It caught Mitch off guard, so much so that he nearly lost his footing. Mercifully, he had the reflexes to brace himself against the counter and stop his body from falling.

Waves of intensifying lightness washed over his brain, amplifying such that he had to slam his eyes shut. 

The sensation mounted, reaching a pinnacle that caused Mitch to…not _black_ out, per se…more like _white_ out. 

He felt his hands detach from the counter’s edge.

* * *

Auston was getting a little concerned. He glanced at his phone and, sure enough, twenty-five minutes had elapsed since Mitch had disappeared into his bathroom. 

Marns was the kind of guy who showered in five; in and out so fast one sometimes doubted he’d even cleansed himself at all. His all-time-record was, like, twelve minutes, from one time when he’d been ill and shivering with cold. 

Thus, Auston was concerned. He could have sworn the water had shut off like fifteen minutes ago. A nagging feeling urged his feet to carry him over to the bathroom door, where he hesitantly knocked. 

There was no reply. 

Auston pounded on the door once more, much harder this time. 

When silence was, once again, all he got in response, he tried the door. Thankfully, it was unlocked. Tentatively, he pressed the door open, terrified at what he might be about to find. 

Initially, Matts was unjustly relieved to not find Mitch unconscious and bleeding or something on his bathroom floor. But that feeling was instantly replaced with panic as he realized that Marns was nowhere to be seen. He’d fucking _vanished_ from Auston’s bathroom. 

His heart began to race, his mind speeding off in all kinds of directions. However, he didn’t make it very far before a high-pitched squeaking sounded from within his bathtub. 

Auston took a terrified, slow step forwards to glance inside. 

He recoiled, cursing _“shit!”_ abruptly as he observed a small, brown furry mammal in his shower. 

The creature fixed its eyes on him and began squeaking rapidly and attempting to leap out of the tub. After some struggle, it got two of its rather short legs over the lip and hauled itself over awkwardly. It was an otter, Matts realized unflinchingly, feeling too stunned to react properly. Mitch had shown him a video of two of the fuckers hugging just last week, ironically enough. 

Auston stared at the otter, dumbfounded and eyes wide, as it darted up to him and sort of grabbed at his leg, still squeaking incessantly. 

Matts stumbled backwards, muttering “shit…fuck…shit,” as the animal waddled after him. 

All that was running through Auston’s head was _Mitch…why is there a fucking otter in my bathroom and what did it do with Mitch?_

He bumped backwards into his kitchen counter and reached blindly for something, anything to arm himself against the tiny mammal that was chasing him. 

His hand found a frying pan, and he raised it instinctively, about to toss it, when suddenly the creature sort of gave a jerk. 

Its expression seemed to go blank, if that was possible, and the otter was instantaneously encompassed by a blinding white light. 

Auston shut his eyes for a heartbeat, still holding the frying pan, and when he reopened them, Mitch was lying, naked and curled up awkwardly, on his floor.

Matts watched in disbelief, his brain not keeping up with his eyes, as Mitch sat upright, his face infinitely more shocked than Auston had ever seen it. Cerulean eyes wide, he seemed to suddenly realize how exposed he was, and clumsily attempted to cover himself. 

Shaking slightly and trance-like in his motions, Auston reached backwards to grab a tea towel, which he tossed in his teammate’s direction. His eyes never left Mitch’s, and he suspected he looked like an open-mouthed idiot. 

Slowly, Marns took to his feet, wrapping the ridiculous tea towel around his waist. 

“Dude.” He uttered breathlessly, his gaze fixed on Auston. 

“Dude.” Matts replied quietly, his voice hollow-sounding and hardly above a whisper as he stared back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from "Ordinary People" by John Legend.
> 
> So yeah, this is perhaps an odd concept, but I couldn't resist. While obviously highly fictitious I plan to infuse some science here and there to make it as believable as possible! (lol wish me luck)
> 
> I really don't know quite where I'm gonna take this beyond seeing what animals the players shift into (I haven't even decided what the Mitch/Auston status is) so if you have any suggestions please comment!
> 
> And for reference, here's a list of the animals we know so far, which I will update at the end of each chapter:
> 
> Mitch=Otter


	2. Auston

“Did I actually just…” Mitch started, his voice immediately fading as though crushed by doubt. 

“Turn into an otter in my bathroom?” Auston finished helpfully, “Yeah.”

Mitch stared back at him silently for a moment, still standing nearly naked in the kitchen. 

He swallowed loudly. “You sure there wasn’t something in that Chinese food?” he quipped, entirely serious. 

“No Mitch,” Matts replied bluntly. “We’re not fucking high. That _actually_ just happened. I nearly threw my frying pan at you.”

Mitch’s grimaced a little. “I forgot about that. What the fuck, dude?”

Auston shot back a mildly offended look. “What would you _expect_ me to do? I thought an otter had crawled out of my drain and eaten you or something!”

Mitch shrugged in reply, nearly smirking. He had to restrain himself; this was some serious shit. 

Meanwhile, Auston was eyeing him warily, as though concerned he might morph back into an otter at any second. 

With a jolt, Mitch came to an unsettling realization. 

“Do you think it’s because of the gas?” He uttered immediately, before he could filter his words. 

Matts’ expression contorted into one of mild astonishment. “Shit…I mean, probably.” He agreed pensively, “but shouldn’t we _all_ be turning into otters if that’s the case?”

Mitch shrugged. “Dunno. Just a theory.” He mused thoughtfully. 

Auston’s brow scrunched up in confusion, “Also, why a fucking _otter_?” 

“How should I know?!” Marns admonished.

The pair of them fell silent for another long moment. Long enough that Mitch felt his heart rate creeping back towards the realm of normal. 

Eventually, he continued somberly, “So now that I’ve endured the weirdest twenty minutes of my life, what do we do next?”

Auston considered him for a moment, raising his eyebrows. “Next? I think we consult Dr. Google.”

Marns brightened at the possibility of uncovering some answers. “Right.” He agreed, nodding vigorously. “If anything can explain crazy shit like this, the internet can.”

He started to stroll towards the bedroom to retrieve Auston’s iPad from its usual charging station, but froze as he realized he was still holding the tea towel around his waist. 

“Aus, can I get some clothes first?” Mitch called sheepishly. 

He saw Auston redden slightly in response, evidently realizing he’d been staring at Mitch nearly naked for over five minutes. 

“Shit- of course.” Matts sputtered, bounding over to the couch to retrieve the neat pile of clothes he’d assembled while Mitch had been in the shower. 

Marns accepted the bundle gratefully and headed to the bedroom to change.

* * *

A couple minutes later, Mitch was cozily decked out in a pair of Auston’s “slimmer” sweatpants (they were a little ludicrously baggy on Marns’ admittedly smaller frame, but obscenely comfy) and an old _Coyotes_ t-shirt. 

He and Auston had reinstalled themselves on the couch, iPad in hand. 

Whatever reservations his teammate might have had about Mitch’s…transformation were evidently being repressed in favour of finding some answers, since Auston allowed Mitch to assume his usual position snug against his side. 

He watched Auston search “shapeshifting” and “animal transformations”, his head nestled in the crook of Matts’ arm. 

“Shapeshifting” yielded all kinds of fake shit about magic, myths, and legends, which was unhelpful given that Mitch’s… _condition_ was very much a real thing. It did lead them to the term _therianthropy_ , which was apparently the dedicated term for “humans metamorphosing into animals”. 

But it was clearly stated as being _mythological_. Unhelpful indeed. 

“Animal transformations” was, if possible, even worse. That search produced a shitload of creepy drawings and videos, a surprising number of them pornographic in nature. While Mitch and Auston did have a great time being mutually disgusted by such findings, they provided nothing in the way of answers. 

Marns watched as Auston navigated through pages about werewolves, _Harry Potter_ , and _Beauty and the Beast_. Eventually he found his way to a page about Mystique, the shapeshifting _X-Men_ character. 

It was there that Auston finally found something that caused his increasingly tense and frustrated-looking expression to loosen slightly. 

“What is it?” Mitch prompted eagerly, watching Matts’ eyes light up as he tapped on a link. 

“Finally some science.” He replied simply, his attention remaining on the iPad’s screen. 

Marns glanced down at the screen. It looked like some kind of scientific literature. 

_“The Melanocortin System’s Arcuate Nucleus and its Implications at the Cellular Level.”_ He recited lethargically, his brain feeling rather fuzzy at the edges in the face of what was obviously serious science. 

He was shocked to note that Auston’s eyes were moving as though he was actually _reading_ the thing. 

“You actually reading this shit, Aus?” Mitch teased with a playful smile.

As Auston nodded seriously in reply, Marns’ expression morphed into one of awe. “How in the hell?” he mouthed quietly, legitimately stunned.

They sat in silence for a moment, Auston reading and Mitch observing him in wonder. 

“I was a bit of a biology nerd in high school, okay?” Matts offered reluctantly after a time, when he realized that Mitch hadn’t stopped staring. 

“Legit?”

“Legit.” Auston echoed quietly. “I considered going to university for it but…hockey kind of won.”

“Huh,” Mitch answered, intrigued, as he stared down at the jumble of science gibberish that Auston was trying to comprehend. “Can you get anything out of this?”

“I’m reading the abstract to try and find out. It _does_ mention neurotransmitters.”

“So…?” Mitch prodded curiously. 

“The gas might have been some kind of neuro-gas. A chemical that affects your brain.”

Marns nodded, encouraging him to continue. 

Auston cleared his throat. “The Melanocortin system is, like, the only real-life system that _might_ in some way tie in to shapeshifting, if what I’m reading is right. If the gas affected it somehow it might’ve set off the otter thing. Maybe. I don’t really know, to be honest. I’m going off nothing but Google.”

“Wow.” Mitch breathed, staring at his teammate in palpable awe, regardless. “So, you’re saying there could be a scientific reason…?”

Auston shrugged. “Possibly.”

“It’s like a superhero backstory.” He decreed, his face happy for an instant before transforming to one more worried.

“What?” Auston urged, elbowing Marns gently as he sensed his unease.

“What if I hadn’t turned back?”

“Into a human?”

“Yeah.”

Matts smiled a little. “I guess I’d have a pet otter for the rest of my life.”

Mitch shoved him with a smirk. “Seriously- we dodged a bullet that the neuro-gas shit didn’t do something worse, I think.”  
“Dude, you were literally an otter half an hour ago. I’d say that’s pretty serious.” Auston teased with a chuckle. “Still, none of this explains why you’re the only one. The rest of us inhaled the gas too.”

Mitch regarded him curiously, raising an eyebrow. “You sure you can’t do it?”

“I think I’d know if I could turn into an otter, Mitch.”

“Well it’s not like I _tried_ to transform. It just happened.” He chided matter-of-factly. “Maybe it can _just happen_ to you, too”

“Maybe.” Auston muttered, glancing down at Mitch thoughtfully. “Think you can do it again?”

“Like, on command?”

Matts nodded. 

Mitch shrugged and stood up. He had zero clue whether he could transform on command, but it was worth a shot, he supposed. He marched over to the centre of the living room and planted his feet firmly in Auston’s shaggy rug. 

Matts watched him in fascination from the couch, his expression expectant. 

Mitch closed his eyes and tried to recall what he’d been thinking about when he’d transformed in the shower, but found he was too distracted by the feeling of Auston’s eyes raking his body. The moment stretched on, Mitch feeling increasingly stupid as Auston observed him just standing there. 

He realized he’d been clenching his jaw and coiling his hands into tight fists. He gave a lengthy exhalation, allowing his face to relax and his mind to empty of thought. 

Miraculously, the lightness soon returned to his brain, acting more swiftly and painlessly this time. 

Suddenly, Mitch opened his eyes and found himself on the floor.

Suddenly, he could hear the neighbours’ muffled conversations next door. And the barking of someone’s dog a few floors below. And the twang of a street guitar sixteen floors down outside at street level. 

He’d actually done it. He’d turned into a fucking _otter_ on command. Mitch tried to glance up at Auston to shout in triumph, but it came out as a stupid-ass squeak instead. 

He hardly cared, though, since his teammate’s expression of astonishment more than made up for it. 

“Fuck, Mitch!” Auston exclaimed, grinning widely, his voice thunderous to Marns’ sensitive otter ears. “I mean…shit- you just changed _on cue_ …that’s like, next level.” He rambled on uncharacteristically. “You’re a legit, real-life therianthromorph.”

Mitch just blinked up at him smugly, since talking wasn’t an option. 

Matts crouched beside him on the rug. “Now, can you do it the other way around? Like, otter to human?” he prodded, smiling minutely down at Marns with a child-like curiosity. 

Mitch wanted to roll his eyes at being told to do tricks like a fucking show dog, but he could hardly resist the soft, curious eyes Matts was fixing him with. 

Anyways, the transformation back, Mitch had observed the first time, was much simpler than otter-ifying himself in the first place. It was just a matter of imagining what it felt like to walk around as a human and allowing one’s brain to do the rest. 

A heartbeat later he had shifted back to human-Mitch, a form in which he was able to shoot Auston a much more complacent expression. 

“That’s seriously fucking dope, man.” Matts muttered, staring straight at Mitch’s re-humanized blue eyes reverently. 

“Now your turn.” Mitch insisted, taking Auston’s arm and orienting his body so they stood face-to-face.

“Mitchy, I really don’t think-“Matts started skeptically, before Mitch raised a hand to silence him. 

“At least try.”

Auston hesitated a moment before exhaling in submission and uttering, “Fine.”

Mitch grinned and instructed his teammate to close his eyes. Begrudgingly, Auston obeyed. 

Marns tried to guide him through the whole brain-wiping process, musing “You gotta, like, let your mind empty until your brain starts feeling like it’s floating.”

“What the actual fuck does that even mean?” Auston muttered unhelpfully, snorting a little. 

“It means shut up, for one.” Mitch retorted, placing his hands on Matts’ shoulders for emphasis. 

He continued to coach Auston in that manner for several minutes without progress. Without even a hint of light-headedness on Matts’ side, apparently. 

Mildly irritated at the lack of results, Mitch observed Auston, who was still standing obediently in front of him (though not without a series of snide remarks every thirty seconds or so) and wondered what the hell he was missing. Sure, Matts was so fidgety that he was swaying slightly, and when Mitch had held his wrist he’d felt a rapid pulse, but otherwise…

And that was when he made the connection. His own heart rate, Mitch realized, had been the opposite of rapid when he’d transformed. Both in the shower and in the living room he’d calmed the fuck down enough for his heart rate to fall to a nice, _chill_ speed. 

“I’ve got it,” Mitch declared firmly, causing one of Auston’s eyes to fly open. 

“Excuse me?”

In reply, Mitch grabbed his arm once more and deftly muscled Matts, who laughed a little and only protested mildly, to the couch. 

“Lie on your stomach.” He instructed rather enthusiastically. 

Auston shot him a weird glance but obeyed, stretching out to drape himself over the piece of furniture like an asshole. 

“Not like _that_ ,” Mitch whined. “Like you’re watching a movie or something.”

“Are you gonna draw me like one of your French girls?” Auston sniggered, causing Mitch to launch a pillow at his head. 

“Quit fucking around,” He quipped, smirking despite himself, “you just need to relax. I think that’s how I did it.”

“Okay,” Auston conceded with a shrug, finally lying still. 

Mitch sat beside him and, slightly tentatively, placed a hand on his back. He felt Auston shudder slightly at the touch, the cords of muscle across his back loosening beneath Marns’ fingers. 

It was kind of their thing, Mitch supposed. The back massages. Ever since that one time Auston had come home from their practice complaining about a tight _latissimus dorsi_ , (ex-biology student, indeed) Marns had been known to spontaneously give him the odd massage. It wasn’t weird. Auston always insisted he was really good at it, and, given Mitch’s weakness for praise, it was no surprise that the massages kept recurring. 

So, Mitch had decided to exploit one of Auston’s weaknesses. He figured he’d _massage_ him into transforming. He gently traced Matts’ spine and drew his fingers across the muscles of his shoulders. He pressed his knuckles carefully into the small of his back. 

It was kind of addicting, running his hands all over Auston Matthews. Whatever the hell that meant. 

Anyways, Matts didn’t seem to mind. He almost always fell asleep when Mitch gave him massages, and today was no exception. 

Mitch felt Auston’s breathing slow and saw that at some point his eyes had drifted closed. 

He knew the massage was accomplishing the goal of lowering Matts’ heart rate; still, Marns was caught off guard when his field of vision was suddenly blinded by an all-encompassing burst of white light. 

He was even more caught off guard when he glanced down and saw that his hand was no longer pressed against the pale skin of Auston’s back, but into a mound of thick brown fur. 

There was a fucking grizzly bear on Auston’s couch. And Mitch was fucking _petting_ it. 

He shook his head sharply and reminded himself, incredulously, that this was no bear. 

Well, it was, but it was also Auston. Which meant Mitch was petting _him_. 

As soon as he made that connection, he jerked his hand away and regarded Matts in awe.

Apparently, the loss of contact with Mitch’s hand caused Auston to stir, because he suddenly scrambled upright, his panic escalating as he realized he wasn’t, well… _human_. 

He nearly tipped the couch over and sent Mitch flying as he scrambled, eventually finding his feet laboriously beside the dining table. 

As Auston stilled, Marns was finally able to get a good look at him. He was huge, for starters. A few hundred pounds, at least, and with a head the size of a large watermelon. And a back of pure, heaping muscle (not unlike the _real_ Auston Matthews, Mitch reflected).

Auston, the fucking enormous grizzly bear. It figured. 

Matts, evidently watching Mitch stare at him, emitted a guttural grunt, exposing two rows of lowering teeth. 

Mitch was both amused and perturbed by the fact that Auston got to be an enormous bear, while he’d been dealt a rather diminutive otter (by some deity with a divine sense of humour, he suspected) but he could hardly linger on that thought for long. 

He watched as Auston’s brown fur gave a tremendous ripple, and his beady, onyx eyes closed sharply before he was instantaneously encompassed once more by a garish light. 

A rather pale, bewildered-looking Matts appeared where a grizzly had existed the instant before.

* * *

“Well, this changes everything.” Mitch observed prudently as he and Auston sat side-by-side at the counter, a few moments having passed since Matts’ rather remarkable transformation. 

Auston nodded at him, somehow looking both collected and excited at the same time. “I wonder if any of the other guys have...you know.”

“I’m guessing we would have heard about it.”

Matts shrugged. “To be fair, I wouldn’t even have known I could do it if it weren’t for you.”

Mitch smiled warmly at him, thoroughly pleased with himself. “How did it feel? For you?”

“Kind of disorienting. And sort of unpleasant. Like, I still have a headache.”

“Really?” Mitch replied with surprise. “I mean, mine hurt a little the first time too, I guess. But no worse than getting rocked a bit on the ice, and it went away quick.”

Auston opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off by the sharp echo of the doorbell, announcing that someone had arrived outside the apartment door. 

Groaning a little, Matts slid off his chair and made his way to the door, trailed closely by Mitch. 

He opened the door nonchalantly, expecting a deliveryman or a solicitor. 

He was not expecting to come face-to-face with William Nylander, who was rather anxiously clutching a leather leash with a cheetah at its end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Your kudos and comments certainly brighten my day <3  
> Keep an eye out for the next instalment!
> 
> Mitch=Otter  
> Auston=Grizzly Bear  
> ?=Cheetah


	3. Kasperi

“I need you both to promise me you’re going to believe everything I’m about to say,” Willie reeled, his face flushed as he fidgeted with the leather lead in his hands, “because it’s going to sound insane but it’s _all fucking true_.”

“Sure,” Auston replied easily, visibly stunning Willie with his nonchalance. “Just come inside first.”

Nylander obliged with a sharp, anxious exhalation and stepped over the threshold, the cheetah stalking along obediently at his heel. Mitch eyed the lithe cat in astonishment, already suspecting he knew exactly what Nylander was going to say. 

The instant the door had closed behind him, Willie launched into a rather frantic account of the past hour. 

“So, Kappy and I were back in the apartment trying to make a _Spettekaka_ \- don’t ask-“ he added as Mitch raised his eyebrows at him, “and there was all this _potato starch_ shit for the recipe, which like, cool,” he rambled rapidly, making wild gestures with his free hand, “but it made Kappy sneeze-”

“Any day now, Willie,” Auston teased, apparently minorly enjoying his teammate’s distress

“-and that’s when things got really fucked up,” he continued with a conspicuous whine, “because Kappy turned into a fucking _cheetah_! In the middle of my kitchen!” 

Willie gestured animatedly at the cat he was leading around, who looked mournfully at both Auston and Mitch in turn and gave a loud chirp, because apparently that’s a fucking cheetah sound. 

“He’s been like this for an _hour_!” Willie groaned tragically. 

Auston, the fucker, actually had the audacity to laugh, which caused Mitch to snort a little by association, because of course it did. 

Poor Willie appeared genuinely stunned. “I’m telling the truth!” he admonished, “You can’t make shit like this up-“

“We believe you, Will.” Matts interjected with a grin, crouching down to Kappy’s eye level to give him a pat on the head. “Rough day, eh Kappy? Or should I say _Kitty_?”

Mitch kicked him lightly for that one. 

“I can’t tell if he’s serious or not.” Willie mused flatly, eyeing Auston with suspicion. 

“He believes you,” Mitch assured him immediately. “He’s just being an asshole.”

Matts smirked apologetically. “Sorry- I just can’t stop picturing you walking around downtown Toronto with a cheetah on a leash like some half-stoned middle-aged movie star.”

“This is serious, Aus!” Mitch exclaimed, upon observing that Willie still appeared distressed. At hip level, Kappy was (if possible) glaring at them all contemptuously and panting anxiously, much like Mitch had seen house cats do when stressed. 

Marns eyed Auston austerely, before adding “ _We_ only changed for like, a couple minutes. Not a _full freaking hour_!”

Auston frowned and glanced down at Kappy, while Willie’s jaw dropped in stupefaction. 

“What the hell?” Nylander wheezed, his voice small and bordering on hyperventilation, “You guys turned into fucking cheetahs too?!?”

“No!” Auston countered quickly, raising his arms gently to urge Willie to calm down, “Not cheetahs. Mitchy was an otter. I was a bear.”

Nylander looked no less astonished; if possible, his azure eyes were even wider than before. “This must all be some kind of stupid-ass dream,” he mumbled almost incoherently, running a nervous hand through his already dishevelled blond hair. 

Mitch sighed and, without putting too much thought into the act, morphed immediately back into an otter. The process was becoming quite smooth, with less and less effort required each time. He was hardly bothered by the increasingly familiar lightness that instantaneously enveloped his brain. 

“Slick, Mitch” he heard Auston mutter, evidently impressed by his ease of transformation. 

Marns only remained otter-esque for a few heartbeats, just long enough for Willie to stare at him properly. He looked to be in slight danger of passing out as he did so. 

Mitch shifted back into a human and regarded Willie calmly, who swallowed slowly and very quietly murmured “This is real?”

“This is real.” Auston reaffirmed coolly. 

“It’s the gas, we think.” Marns added. 

Willie’s brow was still furrowed with concern. “But you guys obviously turned back,” he managed to utter slowly, “so why can’t Kappy?”

Mitch and Auston exchanged a look before Matts spoke. 

“We have no idea, but we’ll figure it out.”

* * *

They settled Willie on the couch and handed him a glass of water, because apparently that was the first thing Auston’s mom always did whenever anyone got upset. 

Kappy had wandered off, evidently fascinated by the smells and sounds in Auston’s apartment that were hitting his sharpened cheetah senses. 

“So, what have you tried so far?” Mitch prompted Willie gently, simultaneously taking a casual seat on _top_ of Auston, who was perched on a lounge chair. 

Matts emitted a small grunt of protest but didn’t shove Mitch off. 

Willie ignored them and took a measured sip of water. “I mean, I googled it, but that wasn’t exactly helpful.” He mused flatly, “And then I considered giving him like, over-the-counter drugs or something but I’m not a fucking doctor, or a pharmacy person, or whatever-“

“No indeed,” Auston muttered with a smirk, until Mitch elbowed him sharply in the gut. 

“So, then I debated whether to call Mo, or Patty, or Babs-“

“Definitely a good call to _not_ phone Babs,” Auston offered, finally serious. 

Willie shrugged a little and continued, “but my phone was dead anyways and I couldn’t find a working charger under all Kappy’s shit in the apartment, so my desperate in-the-moment decision was to walk over to find you guys.” He concluded exasperatedly. “Of course, I didn’t have a dog leash on hand so first I had to leave Kappy to walk out and buy one at the store around the corner…”

“-Is it not kind of weird to you that you’ve been walking around with Kappy on a _leash_?” Mitch interjected, chortling a little to himself.

“Well, at least then it looks like he’s my pet or something-“

“No one has a pet cheetah, Willie.” Auston noted with a snicker. 

Nylander threw up his hands in surrender. “It’s not important right now! I’m still waiting for you fuckers to come up with some brilliant insight on how to make him human again!”

Mitch thought about his own transformations for a minute. “Well, when I change, turning back is usually really simple. I just kind of think about what it feels like-“

He was interrupted by a rather loud crash from the kitchen, which caused the three teammates’ heads to whip around in the direction of the commotion. 

“What the _fuck_ , Kappy?” Willie cursed, leaping to his feet as he observed that cheetah-Kappy had his paws up on the counter and his face in the leftover orange chicken from Mitch and Auston’s dinner, like some kind of oversized, spotted dog. 

He stormed over and just sort of stood over Kappy with his hands in his hair, unsure what the fuck to do about his teammate acting like a starving, delinquent animal. 

Cheetah-Kappy just stared back at him, licking his lips unapologetically.

“You see?” Willie admonished, gesturing wildly at Kapanen, “ _This_ is why we’ve gotta fix this shit.”

Mitch joined Willie in the kitchen, nodding pensively as he considered Kappy. Beside them, Auston leaned down to clean up the mess of objects and food that Kappy had knocked off the counter. 

“Okay,” Mitch started, crouching down so he was face-to-face with the cheetah in Auston’s kitchen (who he had to continuously remind himself was his teammate, Kasperi Kapanen) “Kappy, you gotta block out all the sounds and smells and shit and focus on what it’s like to be a _human_ ,” he instructed carefully. “Like what it feels like to walk around on two legs, and what seeing out of human eyes looks like and shit like that.”

“Close your eyes,” Auston offered, glancing over from the sink, where he had started to rinse dishes. 

Kappy heeded Matts’ advice and sat down, shutting his eyes and sitting calmly in the centre of the kitchen. 

Mitch spoke as tranquilly as possible, “Let all that human stuff wash over you and it should just… _happen_.”

They all stared at Kappy for a moment- Willie particularly vigorously- but no white flash materialized. Kapanen remained feline. He blinked at them unhappily. 

Marns frowned. “Try again?” He suggested, slightly crestfallen. 

He watched as Kappy reluctantly re-closed his eyes and fell still once more. He was quickly caught off guard by an animal transformation for the umpteenth time that evening, as the pale light finally arose, seemingly out of nowhere, around Kapanen. It appeared almost weak and drawn-out, but after a long heartbeat human Kappy re-emerged within the luminescence. 

“Thank _fuck_!” he hollered gleefully several times, holding out his arms to examine them in disbelief. Kappy lurched to his feet and enveloped Marns in a hug of thanks, nearly bowling him over in the process. 

The pair was immediately joined by Willie, who embraced them both in a group hug with an ecstatic grin plastered on his face. “No more leash cheetah!” he declared euphorically. 

“Matts, get over here!” Kappy called firmly over to Auston, who was watching them with a measured smile as he dried dishes. 

“I’m good.” Auston countered contentedly. 

“ _Aus!_ ” Mitch whined, finding his teammate’s eyes. 

Auston’s tiny smile grew a little and he conceded with a cool uttering of “fine.”

He wandered over to the trio of hugging idiots and just sort of stood there smirking as they absorbed him into their hug, Mitch squeezing him obscenely tightly in the process. 

“Yo, Mitch?” Kappy quipped from within the hug.

“Yeah?”

“How did you change on command like that?”

Mitch shrugged. “It’s like I said. It just happens. It’s getting easier every time.”

“Guess I have to practice,” Kappy murmured thoughtfully, causing Willie to shoot him a terrified look. 

“Not tonight!” he assured his roommate carefully. 

Willie exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thank fuck for that. I can’t handle any more of that fucking counter-surfing.”

Kappy appeared both embarrassed and wistful. “The chicken smelled so good, Willie…you have no idea…” he trailed off, almost dreamily. “Also, did Matts say he can turn into a bear?”

“Yeah, a grizzly.” Mitch contributed fondly, gazing over at Auston, who looked sheepish. 

“That’s _awesome_ ,” Kappy breathed reverently. “Can you show us?”

Auston grimaced. “I’d rather not. It kind of hurts. I don’t even think I can do it on command, anyways.”

“How’d you do it the first time, then?” Kappy inquired, puzzled. 

“Mitch helped.”

Willie raised an eyebrow at Marns, but spoke to the group. “I think that’s enough of this shit for the night. I need to sleep on this.” He declared swiftly. 

Kappy conceded with a nod. “Thanks again, Mitch.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“We’ll chat more tomorrow?” Kappy prodded eagerly. 

Auston and Mitch nodded simultaneously, and Matts replied with a firm “Definitely.”

They showed Willie and Kappy to the door, Auston reminding Nylander to grab his ridiculous leash at the very last second. Reluctantly, he grabbed it and swung it over his shoulder. 

“See ya,” Kappy called over his shoulder as the pair of them marched down the hall towards the elevators. 

“Night.” Mitch echoed quietly as he shut the door. 

As soon as the door clicked shut, Auston and Mitch found themselves face-to-face and exhaling matching sighs of exasperation. 

“That was…a lot.” Mitch offered blankly. 

“Yeah.” Auston mirrored.

“Can I stay over?” Marns inquired immediately, “I don’t think I really wanna be alone after all this shit’s gone down.”

Matts nodded instantly, “Of course.”

Mitch thought he looked a little relieved. 

They cleaned up the rest of the kitchen and dealt with the dried-up red sauce stains in the living room. Auston hooked Mitch up with another over-large change of clothes: a pair of Leafs pajama pants and a Drake t-shirt (in response to which he teased Matts that “his Toronto was showing”).

Mitch installed himself on the couch, traded “good nights” with Auston from across the apartment for an embarrassingly long time after they turned the lights out, and then fell asleep comfortable and content.

* * *

He woke the following morning to the buzzing of a text shaking the coffee table by his head. 

Still groggy from sleep, Mitch reached out a sluggish hand to swipe up his phone and glanced at the screen. 

He was rewarded with some highly juicy texts in the Leafs’ groupchat:

 _Mo- 8:55am_  
GUYS SOMETHING REALLY FUCKN WEIRD JUST HAPPENED

 _Naz- 8:57am_  
This better b some good shit u woke me up 

_Mo- 8:57am_  
FUCKN JUST GET OVER HERE NOW HES ON MY CEILING FAN

 _Boz Lightyear- 8:59am_  
???

 _Mo- 9:00am_  
SOS

 

"Aus," Mitch called out sleepily from the couch. "You're gonna want to wake up and see this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mitch=Otter  
> Auston=Grizzly Bear  
> Kappy=Cheetah


	4. Jake

“Seriously, dude- wake up.” Mitch hissed insistently, shoving his phone screen in front of Matts’ face in an effort to force him to read it. 

“Gowaway.” Auston mumbled listlessly, burying his face deeper into his comforter. 

Mitch prodded his shoulder several times, but still his teammate refused to stir. Typical.

Eventually, he decided to up the ante and climbed onto Auston’s bed, straddling Matts’ blanket-buried body with his own. 

“ _Auston,_ ” Mitch whined stubbornly, “Mo needs help. I think Gards morphed into something.” He goaded seriously, “He even sent _SOS_ …”

At that, Auston’s attention became sufficiently hooked. He slowly opened one eye to peek up at Mitch, who was still sort of…on top of him. 

“Please, Aus?” Marns pleaded, “I know you’re perpetually tired but this is important.”

“Fine,” Matts yawned, his sorrel hair tousled from sleep, “But I have a hard time getting up when you’re sitting on me.” He grumbled, the corner of his mouth hinting at a smile. 

“Oh really?” Mitch countered, his tone becoming mischievous. 

“Oh yes,” Auston mused, “you’re _real heavy_ , remember?”

Mitch opened his mouth to clap back a retort of his own, but it was stifled by Auston lurching upright and tackling him mercilessly. 

They struggled for a moment, Marns laughing unashamedly, before Auston deftly pinned Mitch’s wrists to the bed and crouched over him triumphantly. 

They were frozen like that only long enough for Auston to exhale loudly with a smile, before Mitch grinned deviously and transfigured himself into an otter, effectively slipping straight out of Matts’ grasp. 

“You fucking _cheater_!” Auston laughed, trying frantically to grab otter-Mitch as he darted nimbly around the bed. 

Mitch squeaked with delight, jetting swiftly just beyond the reach of Matts’ arms. When Auston eventually managed to grab him, he squirmed wildly against Matts’ football-like hold. 

Ultimately, Marns conceded and shifted back into a human, still snickering and breathing heavily from his high-speed evasion efforts. 

“Okay, _that_ -” Mitch muttered, panting, “-was fun,” he admitted with a gleeful smile, “but we should really get our asses moving and go help Mo.”

“Right,” Auston agreed with an upbeat smile. His chest tightened and he blushed as he realized that he was still hugging Mitch tightly. “Let’s, uh- get going.” He added awkwardly, releasing Marns from the death grip.

Mitch seemed unaffected by their lingering contact as they simultaneously hurried to get ready, dressing themselves and grabbing breakfast toast on route to the door. 

A mere seven minutes later they were riding the elevator down to the parking garage and loading into Auston’s car.

* * *

Mitch and Auston arrived at Mo and Jake’s apartment to find that Naz, Bozie, Willie and Kappy were already there. 

Bozak was the once who answered the door, ushering them inside with wide, confused eyes, “Hey guys,” he muttered briskly, “wait ‘til you get a load of what happened to Gards-“

“Is he a monkey? A tarantula…?” Auston quipped shrewdly.

“Ooh, or maybe a possum?” Mitch chimed excitedly.

Bozak eyed them bewilderedly. “He’s a…squirrel…” he mused lethargically, “How the hell did you know-“

“This shit already happened to us yesterday.” Auston interjected coolly, sounding almost proud. Mitch grinned at him. 

“Okay…uh, come on in, then,” Bozie quipped, perplexed. 

They followed him inside the usually tidy apartment, which was currently in hearty disarray, to where a small crowd (consisting of Mo, Naz, Kappy and Willie) had gathered below the ceiling fan in the living room. 

Mitch glanced up and, sure enough, an insubstantial red squirrel was clinging to one of the fan’s blades, trembling. 

“Would ya look at that, Aus,” He mused, nudging Matts’ arm. 

“Yep,” Auston sniggered, “he’s a squirrel alright.”

It was highly satisfying, Mitch reflected, to be the only ones with any real grasp on the situation, for once. 

Mo, unfortunately, looked like he felt quite the opposite. He looked even more anxious than Willie had the previous night with cheetah-Kappy. 

Speaking of Kappy, Marns watched him brighten considerably as he realized that Mitch and Auston had arrived. “Thank god you guys came; Mitch, you gotta repeat the same shit you walked me through last night.”

“Wait, Marns and Matts have fucking _experience_ with this? With people turning into animals?” Naz reeled, astounded. 

“Yeah, did we forget to tell you?” Willie replied, sounding mildly surprised. “When Kappy was a cheetah last night Mitch was the one that talked him out of it. And they’ve both transformed too.”

Mitch immediately felt all the eyes in the room fix themselves on he and Matts. 

“That might have been nice to know.” Mo muttered from the other side of the room, his voice slightly small and strained. “So, this metamorphosis stuff is like, a _team_ thing, not just a Gards thing?”

Above him, Jake chirruped in protest, still clinging to the fan, but no one seemed to notice. 

Meanwhile, Auston and Mitch nodded zealously at their assistant captain, who groaned emphatically. 

“Well that’s just wonderful. A team full of fucking _animorphs_ …”

“Technically, the correct term is _therianthromorphs_ -“ Auston interjected, though he was immediately silenced by a testy glare from Rielly. 

“This is heavy…” Bozak added weightily, after a rather drawn-out moment of silence, “Riles, can I have your blessing to call a team meeting?” he added, pulling out his phone. 

“Absolutely.” Mo mumbled, casting his eyes back up to squirrel-Gards, “But can we have it anywhere other than this apartment? In case you haven’t noticed, the fucking squirrel-chase I took part in half an hour ago kind of trashed the place.”

“Sure,” Bozie murmured. “My place; 10am.” He decreed, hitting send. 

“Speaking of the trashed apartment,” Mitch countered, observing an overturned coffee table, ripped curtains, and a dishevelled rug in the immediate vicinity, “mind filling us in on what the hell happened here?”

Mo sighed and folded his hands primly, as if attempting to compose himself. 

“Last night I kept thinking I heard weird noises in the apartment, like scuffling and shit. So, I woke up thinking there was an animal in the apartment- which, I guess there was- but like I thought it was a _real_ animal.” He recited laboriously.

Auston and Mitch listened intently. 

“Once I got up I looked around…but I didn’t find anything, so I started making a smoothie and just assumed Gards was sleeping in. But then-“he uttered, fairly dramatic in his delivery, “I saw a red squirrel run across the rug over there and sort of freaked out.” 

He glanced up at Gards apologetically. “I kind of grabbed a broom and started chasing him.” He admitted sheepishly, “I had no idea he was Jake; to be fair, he didn’t, like, do anything odd to get my attention. He just ran away from me exactly like a fucking squirrel would.”

Auston smirked a little. 

Mo ignored him and proceeded, “Eventually, he ended up leaping up to the fan from the shelf over there-“ he muttered, gesturing at a nearby bookshelf, “and he’s been stuck up there ever since. I sent out the SOS and Kappy and Willie came over quickly; they knew what was up and they convinced me the squirrel was…well, Jake.”

“Which wasn’t easy.” Willie added quickly, raising his eyebrows. 

Mo acknowledged him with a nod, then turned his gaze to Mitch and Auston, waiting for their input.

Mitch paused for a moment, eventually muttering, “So…Gards won’t just jump down? Into your arms or something?” 

“I think he’s mad at me.” Mo grumbled irritably in reply. 

“Maybe he’s just scared…he’s pretty freaking high up.” Auston contributed sagely. “Get me something to stand on and I’ll try and grab him.”

Kappy immediately obliged and grabbed a counter-side stool from Mo’s kitchen, setting it down eagerly below the fan. 

Mitch exhaled sharply as Auston awkwardly attempted to stand on it and the freaking thing _wobbled_. 

“I think this is, abjectly, a bad idea.” He muttered quickly, realizing he’d been subconsciously digging his nails into his palms. 

“Relax, Mitch,” Matts reassured him as he stood up to full height, “It’s fine, see?”

“For once I agree with Mitch,” Mo quipped nervously, “Auston, you of all people should _not_ be standing on wobbly fucking stools to rescue squirrels.”

Auston smirked and extended his arms skyward. “It’s not a squirrel, it’s Gards. And last time I checked you fuckers were all too short for this.”

“You’ve only got like, two inches on Kappy and Bozie and I” Mo responded with a groan.

“Two inches is a lot for a squirrel.” Auston countered, his voice much softer and more sympathetic than usual. His outstretched palms came within a foot of the fan’s blades. 

Gards eyed Matts warily for a heartbeat before launching gratefully into his hands, steadying himself with his bushy red tail. 

“See?” Auston proclaimed triumphantly, holding Jake up like a furry trophy. Squirrel-Gards clung tightly to Matts’ hands and chattered in complaint.

“Shit- sorry Gards.” He muttered, stepping carefully down from the stool and releasing Gardiner on the floor. 

The players immediately crowded around him, crouching down to eye him closely. 

“You good, Gards?” Naz prodded, reaching out as though to touch him. 

“He’s shakier than Matts on that fucking stool- is he okay?”

“Why is he flicking his tail like that?”

Jake did appear quite discombobulated, wavering a little on his tiny feet. 

Mitch sighed and waved his hands dismissively, “guys, give him space. He needs to chill if he’s gonna turn back into a human.”

His teammates immediately backed off, allowing Mitch to go one-on-one with Gardiner. 

“Gards,” he murmured very softly, “I know you’ve been through squirrel hell this morning- Mo is very sorry he chased you around the apartment with a broom- but now you gotta relax.”

Squirrel-Gards blinked at him, raising his miniscule nose toward Mitch in what he took as a gesture of understanding. 

“Start by closing your eyes. Take a deep breath, I guess.” He offered, glancing over in Auston’s direction. “Do squirrels do that shit?”

Matts just shrugged, mouthing _how the hell should I know?_

Mitch returned his attention to Jake and exhaled a pensive breath of his own. “Go to some kind of happy place and imagine the feeling of being human. Picture yourself eating human food, walking around, showering, skating, whatever. Domestic shit like that.”

He paused for a second, observing the scene before him. Here he was, giving a squirrel a pep talk. 

_How the actual fuck did we get here…_ Mitch mused absurdly, resisting the urge to smirk and shaking his head minutely to refocus his thoughts. 

He glanced back to Gards and was ecstatic to witness his teammate’s form instantaneously overtaken by the distinctive white flash. Once again, he’d managed to talk a teammate back into a human, it seemed. 

Jake rematerialized in the centre of their disjointed circle, somehow managing to look even more traumatized than usual, which was saying something. His vivid blue eyes looked as though they had spent an hour seeing ghosts. 

Mo appeared understandably relieved to see his friend and roommate back in usual form, and immediately migrated towards Gards, beaming obscenely and attempting to envelop him in a hug.

Jake scowled and shoved him away. “ _Oh no_ you don’t.” he grumbled irritably, holding Mo at arms’ length, “It’s gonna take much more than a fucking hug to get you out of this one.”

“I had no idea the squirrel was you, Jake!” Rielly whined, pouting. “Do you really think I would _purposely_ chase after you with a fucking broom?”

Gards scrunched up his face, evidently perplexed. “I mean…I guess not.” 

Rielly tried once more to go in for the hug, but Jake continued to deflect him. 

“Will you forgive me if I do your laundry for a week?”

“Make it a month and fine.” Gards muttered flatly. 

“Deal!” Mo exclaimed, finally encompassing him in an awkward bro hug. “I’m so glad you’re not gonna be a squirrel for all eternity.”

Jake smiled a little. “Same, to be honest.” He admitted sanguinely, “Thanks, Mitch.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The group regarded Jake and Mo optimistically, mutually buoyed by their successful aversion of the squirrel crisis. Mitch met Auston’s eyes and found his heart floating in the face of the unuttered praise he saw there. 

“This is beautiful and all,” Naz mused, effectively spoiling the pleasant moment, “but we’ve got another problem. Take a look at the group chat.”

Wordlessly, Mitch retrieved his phone and observed a collection of texts, starting with Bozie’s team meeting announcement. 

_Boz Lightyear- 9:24am_  
Mandatory team meeting 10am my place

_Hyms- 9:25am_  
whats going on??

_Brownie- 9:25am_  
mo u ok bro

_JVR- 6:27am_  
Boz how mandatory is mandatory 

_Hyms- 9:28_  
srsly whats happening i feel like im always the last to hear about shit

_Boz Lightyear- 9:28_  
just come to meeting

_Cappuccinarrick- 9:28_  
DUDES HELP I GOT AN SOS TOO

_Brownie- 9:29_  
shit now what

_Cappuccinarrick- 9:29_  
TRAVIS IS LOOSE IN HIGH PARK

_Brownie- 9:29_  
plz elaborate

_Cappuccinarrick- 9:30_  
GALLOPING FAST

Mitch looked up from his phone, observing mirrored shocked expressions on his teammates’ faces. 

“This shit is unending,” Mo muttered unhappily. “Hate to dump this on you, Mitch, but…”

“I know,” Marns echoed disconsolately. “Auston and I’ll go.” He promised, not even bothering to glance at Matts for confirmation. (Sure enough, he was at Mitch’s side a heartbeat later)

Rielly exhaled loudly. “You two go try and round up Carrick and Dermott, we’ll head over to Bozie’s house and start trying to figure out what the hell to say to the guys.”

Mitch paused mid-nod to glance over at Kapanen, aware of a sudden thought, “Kappy, have you tried any more transformations since last night?”

“Oh- yeah!” He answered eagerly. “I was a cheetah twice this morning. On command.” He shared proudly. 

“Can verify.” Willie muttered listlessly, “He almost gave me a heart attack when I came out of the shower.”

Mitch smiled, “Fantastic- you’d better come with us. We might need your speed.” He declared profoundly. “Shit- I feel like I’m assembling a dope superhero squad.”

Kappy marched over and high-fived him, while across the room Willie scowled a little. 

“Get going, guys,” Bozie urged, glancing at his phone once more. “Connor’s not getting any less frantic.”

“On our way.” Auston mused swiftly, swiping his car keys off the couch and heading for the door, flanked closely by Marns and Kappy. The door shut rather loudly behind them as they exited the apartment.

“Wonder what animal Travis is…” Kasperi pondered as they marched purposefully down the hallway towards the staircase.

Mitch shrugged. “We’re gonna find out real soon.” 

Auston smirked. “My money’s on antelope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mitch=Otter  
> Auston=Grizzly Bear  
> Kappy=Cheetah  
> Gards=Squirrel  
> Dermott=? (Auston thinks antelope :p)


	5. Travis

The second that Auston’s car had pulled to a stop in High Park, he, Mitch and Kappy experienced their first Travis sighting. 

In fact, he galloped serendipitously right by their parking spot, missing Auston’s grill by metres. They watched him pass by with mild astonishment. 

“Well, he’s no antelope.” Mitch muttered simply, his eyes following Travis’ zooming white form as it receded into the distance. 

Kappy screwed up his face, “Was that an enormous white horse?”

“I think that was an average-sized white horse,” Auston observed prudently, his hands still gripping his steering wheel. 

Mitch ignored Kappy’s indignant expression. “That was definitely Dermott. We should probably haul our asses out of this car and go after him before he gets too far away,” he declared, lifting his hat to run a hand through his hair, “or at least, Kappy- _you_ should haul after him…no chance in hell either of us are catching a speedy-ass horse.”

Kapanen rolled his eyes but appeared eager regardless, his pupils alight with challenge. He cleared his throat and slid off his jacket before transforming fairly seamlessly into a cheetah on the back seat of Auston’s car. (The process was only mildly unsettling to Marns and Matts at this point, which demonstrated just how fucked the last day of their lives had been).

Mitch regarded cheetah-Kappy pensively, quite impressed. “You _must_ have practiced,” he mused approvingly. 

Kappy chirped proudly in response, baring his neatly tapered feline teeth. 

Auston grinned and pulled out his phone to take a photo, but Mitch interceded swiftly, pushing the phone aside. 

Matts protested with a playful frown, “What? I just want photo record of a cheetah sitting in my car.” 

“Let’s maybe _not_ take hackable photos of our friends as exotic animals. It’s too risky.” Mitch countered, biting his lip. 

“Willie walked down the fucking street with him!” Auston offered bewilderedly, “And he’s about to run around in freaking _High Park!_ ” 

Mitch sighed, “Fair point…just, wait until after the meeting at least. Once we’ve laid out the ground rules for this shit.”

“…Fine.” Auston conceded, “But since when do you give a flying fuck about rules?” he teased lightly.

“Since yesterday- when we got sucked into this potentially illegal, animal-morphing, gas inhaling shit.”

“ _Potentially_ illegal?” Matts chuckled, raising an eyebrow. 

Just as Mitch was about to reply, Kappy called a halt to their meandering conversation by placing a rather insistent paw on his arm and chirruping loudly in their faces. 

“Right,” Mitch muttered, refocusing with a miniscule shake of his head. “Dermott.”

Auston nodded and exited the car, glancing around briefly before opening the backseat door so Kappy could jump out. 

Marns mirrored him on the opposite side of the vehicle, casting his eyes tentatively around the parking lot. 

“Alright, Kappy. Go find us a white horse,” Auston muttered with a shrug, “Make sure you don’t change back in front of anyone and, uh…don’t get caught.”

Kasperi blinked at him once, emitted a small chirp of understanding and then lurched into motion, jetting off across the grass. 

“Meet us back here!” Mitch shouted as an afterthought, hoping his words had reached Kappy’s racing form. He watched as Kapanen’s feline silhouette dashed across the field, his stride elongating magnificently. 

“Shit,” Auston mused, wide-eyed and impressed, as he watched Kappy accelerate in the distance. “I think his chances of catching up are good.”

Mitch nodded in agreement, realizing his mouth had fallen open and hastening to close it. 

The park was, thankfully, reasonably quiet today, though the handful of passersby that observed the cheetah tearing across the green reacted with appropriate consternation. A man fell over, cursing loud enough for Mitch and Auston to hear from a good half a kilometre away. A jogger screamed and sprinted in the opposite direction. A trio of kids stopped their game of Frisbee and pointed, their eyes fixed on Kapanen’s run and their mouths even wider than Mitch’s had been. 

Marns grimaced as he watched a mother scoop up her child and back away from the scene in horror. “Hopefully Kappy finds Travis real quick.” He quipped solemnly.

At his side, Auston nodded slowly. “We should probably put up our hoods or something. You know…to avoid being recognized.”

“Good point,” Mitch acknowledged, immediately throwing his hood over his head. The pair of them regarded the chaos out on the field for a heartbeat before Mitch cleared his throat and spoke.

“Find Carrick?”

Auston nodded in agreement. “Find Carrick.”

* * *

Locating Connor Carrick was, oddly enough, not much of a challenge for Auston and Mitch. 

They found him seated at a little table by a coffee stand in the middle of the park, sipping a latte and tapping his foot nervously. 

Connor lifted a casual hand in acknowledgement as his teammates approached, as though their paths had crossed by happenstance and not by way of a shapeshifting crisis. 

“You look remarkably relaxed.” Auston remarked as they wandered up. 

Carrick shrugged. “I got a text from Mo. It explained a lot…and he told me you guys were coming.”

“What a beaut.” Mitch added cheerfully. “Must’ve been a long text.” 

Connor nodded, his expression marginally overwhelmed. “Longest fucking text I’ve ever received.” He decreed, pausing to sip his drink. His eyes remained trained on Mitch and Auston, as though considering them, “Is it true? The animal stuff?”

“Yeah,” they muttered analogously in reply. 

“Well shit.”

Mitch smirked a little, “I mean…it’s kind of cool. We’re like a team of wizards now.”

“This isn’t fucking _Harry Potter_ , Mitch.” Connor mused. 

Marns opened his mouth swiftly to respond, but Auston beat him to it. 

“Nah, it’s more like a Marvel movie.” He offered, to which Mitch beamed at him. 

Carrick rolled his eyes at their stifling synchronicity. “What I’m saying is that there might be real-life repercussions.” He countered flatly.

“Like?” Mitch prodded, crossing his arms. 

“Trav galloping around High Park like an idiot, for one. He almost gave a dozen random strangers heart attacks.”

“He’s a horse- no one can tell it’s him.”

“But what if someone had seen him transform?!”

Mitch narrowed his eyes, his brow scrunching in confusion, “how _did_ no one see him change? This is like, a busy fucking park.” He retorted flippantly. “What were you guys doing?”

Carrick reddened and bit his lip evasively. “We were in the forest.”

Auston raised his eyebrows at him expectantly. 

Connor swallowed. “Derms might skin me alive for sharing this…but we were doing yoga.”

“Aw, fuck,” Mitch muttered teasingly, “you corrupted him with your hipster glasses coffee yoga lifestyle.”

Carrick stuttered defensively, “it’s very rejuvenating! Regular yoga practice strengthens the mind and offers the perfect counterbalance to intense hockey training-“

Auston cut him off, laughing, “Dude, it’s fine. So what if you guys disappear into some corner of High Park every week and do yoga?” He assured Connor, “It’s no worse than Naz going to those fucking Zumba classes.”

“What did Zumba ever do to you?” Mitch quipped, snickering.

Auston sighed exasperatedly, placing his hands on his temples. “It fucked up Latin American culture and made it soccer mom-friendly, that’s what.”

“ _Anyways_ , to revisit our original topic,” Connor interjected, clearing his throat theatrically, “Derms and I were doing our thing- going through a long vinyasa sequence- and Travis was just like ‘ _wanna see something cool?_ ’, so I said _sure_ and he just up and turned into a fucking horse right in front of me.”

“Oh Travis,” Auston mused, smirking and running his hands over his eyes.

“ _Oh Travis_ indeed; I thought I’d gone fucking insane.” Connor mumbled irritably. “He then proceeded to gallop away into the forest and I haven’t seen him since.”

Mitch shrugged, digesting Carrick’s tale. “We sent Kappy after him…hopefully they come back soon.”

“Kappy, who can now turn into a cheetah?” Connor prodded uncertainly. 

“That’s the one.”

The three of them fell silent for a moment, watching a Frisbee game that had resumed on the adjacent field.

After a time, Carrick spoke. “Why is life as a Maple Leaf so fucking weird?” he uttered quietly, taking a long sip of his coffee. 

Mitch and Auston shrugged and offered content and unquestioning smiles. They were saved from formulating a further response by the timely return of Travis and Kappy, now in their human forms. 

The pair of them walked up casually, hands in their pockets as they engaged in offhanded conversation. (As if they hadn’t been a white stallion and a cheetah, respectively, just minutes before).

Mitch smirked a little at the sight. “Take your time, guys.” He shouted at their approaching figures, “The entire team’s definitely not waiting for this recovery mission to return so we can throw an emergency meeting or anything.”

Kappy waved his hand dismissively. “I was catching Trav up on everything that’s gone down.”

“Also, sorry Connor,” Dermott added, smirking a little. “For leaving you alone in the forest. I got excited.”

“I could see that.” Carrick replied dryly. 

“And then I got sort of lost-“

Connor sighed. “See, _this_ is why you should’ve paid attention when I pointed to where we were going on that huge map…”

Meanwhile, Auston disregarded their banter and regarded Kapanen, pleased. “How long did it take you to find him?”

“Only like five minutes.” Kappy answered candidly. “You’re welcome.”

Mitch clapped his hands together, gathering his teammates’ attention. “Glad this whole shit-show was just a big, easily resolved misunderstanding,” he mused blithely, “but we should really get to Bozie’s place before the vets decide something stupid without us...like contacting the scientists…or worse, telling Babs.”

* * *

This, Mitch reflected, was the first time they’d all been together since the gas incident had originally occurred two days prior. 

In a strange twist of fate, the Leafs were amid a pair of off-days in Toronto before a back-to-back at home and in Buffalo. 

Tomorrow at 10am would be their first skate post-neuro gas inhalation. They had until then to figure out what was going to be done about the whole shapeshifting issue moving forward. 

Mitch was leaning against Auston’s legs on the floor of Bozak’s living room, surrounded by his teammates. At the front of the room, Mo regarded them all stoically as they gathered around him like fucking disciples before a prophet. 

He eyed Auston and Mitch in slight accusation. “Now that you guys have finally fucking joined us,” Rielly began, his voice immediately quieting the chatter that had broken out, “we can proceed with the meeting.”

Mitch immediately thrust his hand in the air, causing Mo to groan exasperatedly. 

“Yes, Mitch?” he muttered flatly. 

“How far did you make it into the explanation?”

“To the part where Gards was a squirrel this morning.” Mo muttered, shuddering a little at the memory. 

Marns nodded in approval. “So…everyone here knows?”

“Yes, Mitch, everyone here knows you can transform into an otter.”

From the back of the room, Hyman called, “we’d still love to see it in person, though!”

“Seconded.” JVR declared, raising a hand. “Some definitive proof that this whole concept isn’t an elaborate revenge prank for the Vegas thing would be nice.”

A few shouts of approval rocked the players, all eyes turning to Marns. 

Mitch smiled and glanced at Mo for permission. Rielly nodded and stepped aside, his eyes betraying his own curiosity. 

Mitch stepped up to the front of the room, feeling twenty pairs of eyes affixed to his back. Before any kind of anxiety could invade his thoughts, he transformed mid-step; it was a flashier, more dynamic metamorphosis than usual but generated the same result. The transition itself had become seamless, as though Mitch were slipping on a costume and not modifying every cell in his body. 

Otter-Mitch blinked up at the flabbergasted faces of his teammates. Though they had all had shapeshifting described to them, nothing replaced witnessing it for the first time, apparently. 

Marns waddled around the room, giving everyone a chance to dote on him properly, before climbing onto Auston’s lap and shifting back to his human form. He watched Auston’s expression morph into a grimace as the amount of weight on his lap multiplied eightfold. 

He remained there smugly for a heartbeat, snickering a little, until Auston shoved him off with a smile. 

Mitch was immediately bombarded with questions, mostly about how to transform and what the sensation of turning into an otter felt like. 

He disregarded the inquiries jokingly, “I’ll sign autographs later- for now just pay attention to Mo.” He insisted, noticing that beside him a smirk had appeared at the corner of Auston’s mouth. 

“ _Thank you_ , Mitch.” Rielly retorted gratefully over the chatter. “Can we please focus?”

The room quieted once more as Mo cleared his throat. “So, we’ve established that some among us can now transform into animals. Maybe a running list of who’s changed so far is in order?” he inquired to no one in particular, “Bozie, do you have a whiteboard or something?”

Bozak shook his head, “No…but I have a dry-erase marker and there’s a mirror behind you.” He offered, wandering over to the kitchen and snatching up a marker. 

“That’ll do,” Rielly admitted with a shrug, extending his hands to catch the improvised writing instrument as Bozak tossed it in his direction. “Hopefully Molly doesn’t kill me for this.”

He uncapped the marker and turned to face the mirror. “Mitch, Auston, Kappy, Gards, and Travis.” He recited, writing out their names in red on the surface. A moment later, he added their respective animals beside their names. 

There was some muttering around the room about the pairings. Notably, Mitch heard Leo mumble “Matthews is a _bear_?” 

To which JVR elbowed him and countered quietly, “Yeah- Mo mentioned it like a dozen fucking times.”

“That’s,” Komarov stammered, searching for the right word, “what is it the kids say these days? _baller_?”

Mitch snorted with laughter and attempted to hide it by burying his face in Auston’s side. 

Meanwhile, Mo proceeded with his presentation. 

“The real question now is _why_ this happened. Obviously it started with the whole lab gas thing…but like what did we inhale that gave you guys fucking shapeshifting powers?”

“And is it reversible?” Patty wondered responsibly, garnering him several nods of agreement from the other vets.

“Also,” Brownie interjected fervently, “will it happen to the rest of us?”

“And why _these_ animals?”

“Can they only turn into one? Mitch- have you tried changing into something else yet?”

“Didn’t Gards say he just _woke up_ as a squirrel? Are we all just gonna spontaneously wake up as animals now?”

“What if someone accidentally changes in the middle of a game!?”

“Why is Dermott a fucking _pony_?”

“I’m a majestic white stallion, thank you very much.”

At the front of the living room, Rielly appeared overwhelmed into wide-eyed silence as he was berated with questions from all directions. Questions which, Mitch knew for a fact, he did not have any of the answers to. 

Feeling sympathetic, Mitch quietly raised his hand once more. Mo seemed relieved to receive such civility amidst the chaos and gestured to him gratefully this time, urging the surrounding players back into silence with great difficulty so that he might speak. 

Mitch cleared his throat and spoke calmly, “Auston has a science-y explanation for the shapeshifting.”

“Mitch, I-“ Matts started at his side, before Mitch deftly cut him off.

“I know you said it’s just a theory but it’s good- you should tell the guys.” He encouraged frankly. 

Auston sighed and shot Mitch an unimpressed glare. “Like Mitch said, this is just a theory, but we did some research and it might explain the therianthropy-“

“Theri-fucking- _what_?” Naz quipped, smirking.

“Therianthropy- humans turning into animals.” Auston recited swiftly. He ignored Kadri’s bewildered expression and proceeded. 

“Basically, there’s a system we all have in our bodies- the Melanocortin system- that _might_ enable shapeshifting if a powerful enough neurotransmitter or neurochemical interferes with its natural pathways.” He muttered reluctantly.

Over a dozen sets of confused eyes blinked perplexedly at him, but Matts continued. 

“The gas from the lab could have been some kind of neuro-gas that bound to natural chemicals in our brains to make this shit happen.”

Hyman was nodding enthusiastically at him. “I’m no biologist- but that _sounded_ like a legit, quality explanation.”

Beside him, Bozak shrugged in agreement. “It’s better than chocking all this up to magic or something.”

Mitch couldn’t help but stare adoringly at Matts as he received praise and appreciation from around the room. He couldn’t help but notice the way Auston was blushing negligibly and smiling minutely to himself in the face of all the attention. And-

 _Holy shit,_ Mitch realized with a start. Was Auston’s science-talk a… _turn-on_ for him?

He tried to pick apart that possible epiphany for a second, but wasn’t allowed the headspace, as Mo was asking him a question. 

“You want me to what?” Mitch managed to stammer, fairly slow to respond. 

“Tell everyone how you do the morphing thing. You know, so they can try if they want or get out of it if they don’t.” Mo repeated patiently.

“Oh…right. Sure.” Marns agreed blankly, stumbling back up to centre stage of the meeting. 

He launched into his brief, now-familiar emergency explanation of how to undo a transformation and return to human form. It was a nearly identical spiel to the ones he’d laid on Kappy and Gards in their respective hours of need. 

His teammates listened attentively, their gazes pressing. 

Mitch opened his mouth to begin to explain how to go about shifting in the first place, but froze as he came to yet another realization. The second in just as many minutes. 

When he’d helped Auston to change (and whenever he made his own transformations) it had been all about being chill. A low heart rate and an empty mind had been crucial. 

Yet Kappy had shifted simply by sneezing and Gards had apparently woken up from a nightmare and found himself a squirrel; both of _those_ transformations were the opposite of chill. 

“I think there’s two.” Mitch muttered aloud, his eyes vacant. 

He could tell peripherally that Auston was eyeing him in fascination. 

“Two what?” Mo prodded from his new seat on the couch. 

“Two ways,” Marns muttered profoundly, running a hand through his hair. “There’s two ways you can change. It’s all about high…or low.”

“Do tell.” Zach murmured curiously.

“Matts and I just had to relax a little and the morphing just _happened_. But for Kappy and Gards they needed a jolt…like a sneeze or a bad nightmare to get them started. I think that’s how it works- you get one or the other.”

Mo stared at Mitch quizzically. “So you’re saying that to change all we have to do is play around with getting our heart rates up and down?”

Auston was quick to jump on a response, “There’s probably more to it than that,” he suggested, “But yeah, I think Mitch is right.”

“Then in theory we could all try it like…right now?” Naz exclaimed wondrously, to which Mitch nodded tentatively

Kadri let out an excited whoop and leapt to his feet with a devious look on his face, “Alright boys- I’m taking bets. What are we gonna see crawling around this apartment? Monkeys? Tigers? Salamanders? And what’s Riles gonna get? Personally, I’m thinking honey badger-”

Beside him, Leo shrugged and muttered, “I don’t give a fuck what most of you are…but if Plekanec isn’t a turtle I will be suing the scientists.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mitch=Otter  
> Auston=Grizzly Bear  
> Kappy=Cheetah  
> Gards=Squirrel  
> Dermott=Horse


End file.
